Is Google Making Us Stupid? (by Nicholas Carr)
"[The advantages of the Internet come] at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles."
Would love to hear what you think about this article.
"[The advantages of the Internet come] at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles."
Would love to hear what you think about this article.
The down side of this is it allows somebody that is not educated in proper research practices to pick and choose information that support their own possibly flawed hypotheses and offer their findings as fact. This poses a greater task to those informed to dig the through the bullshit to get to the facts. Still, nothing beats a classic education, but having that education as a tool to determine what's legitimate and what's not can turn the internet a powerful resource.
I feel that it's not so much a matter of stupidity as it is a matter of adaptation. Holograms and thought-reading technology is pretty much here. Automation is everywhere. It's a dangerous change 'cause it's happening so suddenly but with the right education ( oh god I could go on for hours about how wrong the public education system is ) and right circle of support from families and friends, people can grow up thriving and not being any bit more lazy or stupid because of said automation.
I feel like it's a combination of the public school system, lack of true democracy - and therefore true responsibility - and warped views of human needs forced onto people by the big guys and girls that get a lot of attention, that creates a lot of stupidity in our globalized society.
Should probably stop now, could go on about this for ages. >.> Basically, people need to be more responsible for themselves and their minds.
duh??!!!
The Internet is the same damned thing as a hugmongous library because that is what it is: gargantuan amounts of information and nothing more. Except the internet is a global library and one can use it as fast or slow as one wants. Do you really think pick-and-choosing in order to support a viewpoint is somehow new to the internet?!
The internet allows ALL people to become as educated as they want. People can expand themselves or become more myopic; their choice.
Information does not make anyone stupid, regardless of how fast or slow it is. It is how people choose to access the information, digest the information and disperse the information that determines whether they are gaining knowledge or not.
Yeah, maybe we should all go back to one-room schoolhouses and chalkboards too. Sheesh.
But it isn't just having a child that can do that. You get older, your life gets more hectic or full of responsibilities and you just can't seem to sit yourself down and block out the world like you used to. When I was ten years old, I could spend literally 24 hours reading a book if I wanted to. I don't have the stamina to do that anymore really, but its not because my mind has been melted by the freakin internet!